The present invention relates to article laminating apparatuses.
Laminating apparatuses typically include a pair of feed rolls, which carry a supply of laminating material. The laminating material is fed from these feed rolls (the feed rolls may be mounted to the frame individually or in a cartridge) into a processing assembly in which a processing operation bonds the materials to one another and to respective sides of an article for lamination inserted into the processing assembly. Traditionally, one or both of the laminating materials have an adhesive on one side. The adhesive may be self-adhering or heat activated. In the case that the adhesive being used in the processing operation is self-adhering, the processing assembly need only compress the materials to each other and to the article to cause bonding. This is usually accomplished with nip, or bonding, rollers. However, in the case that the adhesive being used is a heat activating type, the processing assembly must add heat to the materials prior to or during compression in order to instill a sufficiently strong bond between the materials and the article.
Along with various types of adhesives, laminating materials may also have various thicknesses. In heat laminating, the processing operation with relatively thick laminating material may require a somewhat longer time period to perform, since the material must be heated for a longer duration than with thinner laminating material. Alternatively, the temperature of the heater could be increased so that less time is needed to activate the adhesive. Also, the pressure applied to the materials may vary with the material thickness and/or the types of adhesive used. As such, laminating apparatuses have been designed that are capable of varying the feed speed, pressure and/or the operating temperature at which it operates in order to accommodate laminating materials with different thicknesses. However, these machines require the user to know the laminating material thickness and/or adhesive type and manually set adjustments of the machine (i.e., feed rate, pressure and/or heating temperature) according to appropriate values.
To obviate the need for the user to know these characteristics and manually adjust settings of the machine, one aspect of the present invention provides a laminating apparatus for use with a cartridge having a detectable element indicative of a characteristic of the laminating materials in the cartridge (the term a characteristic encompasses one or more than one characteristic). The article laminating apparatus of the present invention provides a frame constructed and arranged to removably mount the cartridge thereto. An article processing assembly is carried on the frame such that, when the cartridge is removably mounted thereto, an article can be inserted into the article processing assembly in a feeding direction together with the laminating materials unwound from their respective feed rolls and disposed on opposing sides of the article. The article processing assembly includes cooperating pressure applying structures and one or more heating elements. A control system controls the article processing assembly to perform an article processing operation. In the article processing operation, a temperature of the one or more heating elements is elevated to enable the adhesive to adhere to the article inserted into the processing assembly and the cooperating pressure applying structures apply pressure to the laminating materials and the article to affect adhesive bonding therebetween.
The apparatus further comprises a detector operable to detect the detectable element on the cartridge. The detector is communicated to the control system and transmits a signal indicative of the characteristic of the laminating material based on the detectable element on the cartridge. The control system is operable to adjust at least one parameter of the article processing operation based on the signal indicative of the characteristic of the laminating materials.
The parameter(s) adjusted may include the temperature of the one or more heating elements, the feed rate at which the article and the laminating materials are advanced through the apparatus, the pressure applied by the cooperating pressure applying structures, or any other parameter of the processing operation. Of course, the term at least one parameter is intended to encompass any one of these parameters alone, or any combination of parameters of the operation.
Other related aspects of the invention are directed to a cartridge for use with such an apparatus, a system including a cartridge and an apparatus in combination, and a method of performing an article processing operation.
Another aspect of the present application relates to the construction of the heating device in a heat laminating apparatus. Conventionally, laminating apparatuses have generally utilized one of two distinct types of heat sources to heat heat-sensitive adhesive material. The first type is a platen-type heating element. Laminating apparatuses with platen-type heating elements usually have a pair of the heating elements that are positioned within the apparatus to heat the material as it leaves the feed rolls and prior to compression by the bonding rollers. The pair of heating elements are generally planar plates positioned in spaced relation to one another so that the material may be fed between them. The plates are heated by application of an electrical current. As such, the laminating material is heated by convection via the platen-type heating elements. Another type of commonly used heat source is a heated bonding roller. For this type of heat source, the bonding rollers themselves are heated and thereby serve to heat the laminating material by conduction while simultaneously compressing it.
This aspect of the present invention provides an article laminating apparatus that has an improved heating system, specifically combining the benefits of the two types described above. The apparatus is designed for use with a pair of feed rolls carrying a supply of laminating material to be unwound. At least one of the laminating materials includes a layer of adhesive provided thereon. The apparatus includes a frame constructed and arranged to enable the feed rolls to be mounted thereon. An article processing assembly is carried on the frame such that an article can be inserted into the article processing assembly in a feeding direction. The article processing assembly includes a pair of cooperating pressure applying structures and a pair of heating elements.
The heating elements have pressure applying structure heating portions positioned in heat transferring relation adjacent the respective pressure applying structures so as to transfer heat to the respective pressure applying structures. The heating elements also have laminating material heating portions positioned such that, when the laminating materials are unwound and fed between the pressure applying structures, the laminating material heating portions are positioned in heat transferring relation adjacent respective laminating materials. The laminating material heating portions generally extend adjacent a lengthwise portion of the respective laminating material extending between the pressure applying structures and the respective feed roll so as to transfer heat to the laminating material prior to advancing between the pressure applying structures.
The article processing assembly is constructed and arranged to perform an article processing operation wherein portions of the laminating materials are initially heated by the laminating material heating portions of the heating elements prior to advancement between the pressure applying structures. The article and laminating materials are further heated and simultaneously compressed between the pressure applying structures. The article laminating apparatus according to this aspect of the invention offers an improved heating capability, since the laminating materials are pre-heated (prior to advancement between the pressure applying structures) and then heated while having pressure applied thereto (while being advanced between the pressure applying structures). As such, the laminating materials have sufficient exposure time to the heating elements (e.g., are-thoroughly heated so as to fully and uniformly activate the adhesive), which ensures that the laminating materials uniformly adhere to the article and/or each other.
Yet another aspect of the invention relates to a cutter system for a heat laminator. It is generally known in the art to provide a cutter for cutting the laminating material after the processing operation is performed. Cutters have been in the form of a guillotine-type cutter and sliding cutters. Guillotine-type cutters are advantageous in that they may quickly cut the complete width of the laminating material and are simple to manually operate. Slide cutters usually ride on a track with a vertically disposed blade that may be moved laterally across the width of the laminating material to cut it. Either of these cutters may be adequate to cut the laminating material while the material is stationary (i.e., not being fed through the apparatus). However, it has been found that neither of these cutters are well-suited for cutting the laminating material without stopping the feed of the material. As such, these cutters are not well-suited for use in heat laminators because stopping the feeding material results in excessive heat being applied to the portion of the film adjacent the heating elements during stoppage. This excessive heat can deform the laminating materials, thus ruining its appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,325 of Miyake discloses a cutting system for a laminator that is capable of cutting while the film is being fed through the laminator. The cutting system of Miyake uses a cutter mounted to a pair of movable block members. The block members are mounted to the laminator to move in a film feeding direction relative thereto. The cutter extends between the block members parallel to a widthwise direction of the film (perpendicular to the film feeding direction). To cut the film, the block members are moved in the film feeding direction at a rate of speed equal to a film feed rate through the laminator. The cutter is then moved between the block members (perpendicular to the film feeding direction) to cut the film. As such, the film may be cut straight across without stopping the feed of film through the laminator. However, the cutting system of Miyake requires significant space, since the entire cutting system is moved in the feeding direction. Further, two drive systems are required to move the block members in the feeding direction and to move the cutter between the block members, respectively. As such, the cutting system of Miyake is relatively complex and expensive to manufacture.
To avoid these limitations, this aspect of the present invention provides an article laminating apparatus with an improved cutting system. The apparatus is designed for use with a pair of feed rolls carrying a supply of laminating material to be unwound. At least one of the laminating materials includes a layer of adhesive provided thereon. The article laminating apparatus includes a frame constructed and arranged to enable the feed rolls to be mounted thereto. An article processing assembly is carried within the frame such that, when the feed rolls are removably mounted thereto, an article can be inserted into the article processing assembly together with the laminating materials unwound from their respective feed rolls and disposed on opposing sides of the article. The article processing assembly includes cooperating pressure applying structures and one or more heating elements. A control system controls the article processing assembly to perform an article processing operation. In the article processing operation, a temperature of the one or more heating elements is elevated to a level sufficient to enable the adhesive to adhere to the article inserted into the processing assembly. The cooperating pressure applying structures apply pressure to the laminating materials and the article to affect adhesive bonding therebetween.
The apparatus further includes a cutter system including a blade mounted on a guide structure for a cutting movement to enable the blade to cut transversely through the bonded materials discharged from the article processing assembly. The guide structure is oriented at an angle with respect to a feeding direction in which the article and laminating materials advance through the article processing apparatus such that the blade moves along a cutting path oriented at the angle. The angle and a velocity at which the blade moves along the cutting path are related such that a velocity component at which the blade moves in the feeding direction along the cutting path is substantially identical to a feed rate at which the article and the laminating materials are advanced through the apparatus in the feeding direction so that the laminating materials are cut generally perpendicularly with respect to the feeding direction.
Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.